Horizontal roll stand



May 31, 1955 E. T: PETERSON HORIZONTAL ROLL STAND 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 19, 1949 INVENTOR ATTORNEYS HORIZONTAL ROLL STAND Filed Nov. 19, 1949 $Sheets-Sheet 2 y 1955 E. T. PETERSON 2,709,627

HORIZONTAL ROLL STAND Filed Nov. 19, 1949 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 W I 1 l o l J .-f 21: F i $1 I I I I 1 5 i I 4 56 1 I I I \NVENTOR mai'df fliam United States Patent 2,709,627 HORIZONTAL ROLL STAND Edward T. Peterson, Reading, Pa., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Birdsboro Steel Foundry and Machine Company, Birdsboro, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Application November 19, 1949-, Serial No. 128,378 1 Claim. (Cl. 308--76) The present invention relates to a rolling mill and particularly to a horizontal roll stand therefor.

A purpose of the invention is to support a rolling mill roll by a hollow housing that extends around the roll on the side opposite from the cooperating roll, from one roll neck to the opposite roll neck, and which carries the bearings, as Well as the bearing caps and bearing covers.

A further purpose is to facilitate roll changing by permitting removal of a roll and its bearings bodily by removing a housing extending rigidly from end to end of the roll, and which carries at the two ends of the housing the bearings for the individual roll.

A further purpose is to adjust the housings longitudinally with respect to the main frame and thus bodily adjust the rolls.

A further purpose is to provide thrust bearings between each roll and its housing, and desirably to permit take-up in each thrust hearing.

A further purpose is to provide enclosed lubricant passages at the two ends of the housing for water lubrication.

A further purpose is to circulate water or other lubricant through the hearings on the interior of each housing at each roll neck and desirably to seal against leakage of the water beyond the roll necks, thereby minimizing corrosion of the rolls and other parts of the mill.

A further purpose is to provide enclosed bearing carriers on the side of the roll neck toward the opposite roll, and to resiliently mount the bearing carriers from bearing caps secured to the housing.

A further purpose is to provide vertically adjustable opposite wedges on the main frame, cooperating wedge keepers above the wedges, and fulcrums on the wedge keepers which support the housing of the lower roll.

A further purpose is to join the wedge keepers by a resilient web.

Further purposes appear in the specification and in the claim.

In the drawings I have chosen to illustrate one only of the numerous embodiments in which my invention may appear, selecting the form shown from the standpoints of convenience in illustration, satisfactory operation and clear demonstration of the principles involved.

Figure 1 is a central fragmentary vertical section through the roll necks showing the journal and thrust bearing according to the invention at one end of the rolls.

Figure 2 is a transverse vertical section through the roll necks of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a detail end elevation of the top roll housing.

Figure 4 is a detail vertical axial section of one of the bearing caps employed in the invention.

In the drawings like numerals refer to like parts throughout. Y

Describing in illustration but not in limitation and referring to the drawings:

In the prior art it has been common practice to mount the individul rolls of a rolling millin separate chucks at each end, each chuck individually supporting one bearing of the roll stand. This has complicated the procedure in roll changing, often causing considerable delay when new rolls are to be inserted in a roll stand. The space around the bearings has normally been open, permitting foreign matter to enter the bearings, and also allowing water used to lubricate the bearings to flow freely over the rolls and other parts of the mill, thus increasing the corrosion problem. End adjustment of the rolls has often required the use of complicated levers, increasing the expense of the device.

In accordance with the present invention, each of the rolls is supported by a yoke-like housing which extends from end to end of each roll and mounts the roll neck bearings and thrust bearing for the individual roll. In the preferred form of the invention each bearing is enclosed, so that the lubricating liquid will .not flow freely over external portions of the mill, and difficulty through corrosion will be minimized.

By the invention the time of roll changing is greatly reduced, since each roll is provided with a self-contained mounting for its journal and thrust bearings, and the entire structure can be changed as a unit.

End adjustment is simplified, since it is merely necessary to shift the whole housing endwise in order to effectuate end adjustment.

The construction within each journal bearing is extremely sturdy, since the bearing material on the side remote from the opposite roll is directly mounted in the housing, whereas the bearing material on the side adjoining the opposite roll is resiliently positioned in the housing in a carrier which is surrounded by a bearing cap.

The main frame includes a pair of relatively spaced uprights 25 at each side of the working faces of the rolls crossed connected at the top.

The roll stand includes a pair of cooperating rolling mill rolls 3% and 31 (roll 39 being the upper and roll 31 the lower as shown) each having a cylindrical working surface often provided with the usual grooves (not shown) for determining the cross section of the stock and having at each end roll necks 33 which cooperate with the bearings.

In the rolls of the present invention, beyond the roll neck at one end each roll is annularly grooved and shouldered at 34 to provide an inner thrust bearing surface, and beyond the shoulder is provided with a thrust disc 35 for engagement with a thrust bearing.

The rolls are ordinarily arranged as shown with parallel axes immediately above one another. While two rolls are shown, it will be understood that the invention may be applied to mill stands having more rolls than two.

The upper roll 3% is surrounded on the side remote from the lower roll 31 by a hollow yoke-like roll housing 36, while the lower roll 31 is similarly surrounded on the side remote from the upper roll 3% by an opposite counterpart roll housing 37. The roll housings are extremely sturdy structures, on which the bearings and auxiliary parts are mounted, so that each roll and its roll housing can be removed, stored and replaced as a unit.

Each roll housing extends from one roll neck to the other on the same roll and at one end extends beyond the roll neck to surround the thrust disc 35 on the side remote from the other roll.

At each roll neck the housing is provided with a substantially semi-cylindrical surface 45 for engaging hearing material 41 only. As in the other cases where bearing material is mentioned herein, this hearing material may be any suitable material which will stand up under the load as bearing metal (bronze, lead base bearing metal or the like) or phenolic bonded fabric or fiber.

On the side remote from the other roll at each roll neck each housing has a yoke-like bearing cap 42 which is secured at each side to the housing by bolts 43 and interlocks to make a tight seal at 44 on either side.

At the thrust bearing endthe lubricant space is closed by a bearing cover 48 which is suitably fastened as by bolts to the housing and the bearing cover.

Within each bearing cap 42 on the side toward the opposite roll is a lubricant space 45 closed at the side toward the opposite roll by the cap and at the side remote from the opposite roll by the housing.

Within the lubricant space on the side toward the opposite roll a U-shaped bearing carrier is mounted, generally of semi-cylindrical form conforming to the roll neck, and having interposed between it and the roll neck a suitable anti-friction bearing material 51 of the character mentioned. The carrier 50 extends on either side of the roll neck and is provided with a vertical opening 52 at each side through which passes a bolt 53 threaded into the bearing cover and having a head on the side adjoining the housing which limits the motion of the carrier away from the bearing cap. The bearing cap and the carrier are recessed around each bolt to provide sockets for a coaxial inner compression spring 54 (Figure 6) and outer compression spring 55 around each bolt serving to urge each carrier toward the housing and thus hold the bearings together around the roll necks.

To seal against leakage of lubricating liquid, the housing and bearing cap on each side of the working cylindrical surface of the roll has an annular end slot 56 (Figure 5) which contains a resilient split ring 57 of suitable sealing material such as fiber, spring urged axially toward the middle of the roll by springs 58.

The thrust disc on the roll is engaged under the shoulder upper roll assembly consisting of its housing, journal and thrust bearings, bearing caps and cover and the roll itself can then bodily be removed. Then the similar lower roll assembly can be removed employing the crane in each case. Substitute roll assemblies can be inserted bodily and then the device is reassembled by reapplying the mill stand cap and connecting the attachments at the pivot 96 and closing the cap. When the proper adjustment has been completed, the holddown screws are tightened and the rolling mill is ready for use.

During operation of the mill water or other lubricant fluid is applied through the inlets and withdrawn through the outlets of each bearing.

It will be evident that by the present invention the lubricant fluid is confined, avoiding corrosion. Roll changing is greatly facilitated and simplified. Both vertical and end adjustment of the rolls are aided.

Whenever wear on the thrust bearings occurs, these can be taken up readily by suitably tightening the thrust bearing adjusting screws 65. p

In view of my invention and disclosure variations and modifications to meet individual whim or particular need will doubtless become evident to others skilled in the 34 by an annular split thrust collar of anti-friction bearing material 61 resting in an annular recess 61' in the housing and bearing cap. The remote end face of the thrust disc 35 is engaged by a thrust ring 62 of anti-friction bearing material of the character described, which is adjustably guided at 63 (Figure 5) in the bearing cover 48 and is adjustably mounted on the flanged end 64 of a takeup screw 65 axially threading through the bearing cover 48. A lock nut is threaded on the screw at 66 at the far end and packing means to avoid leakage are provided at 67.

Connections are provided to the closed lubricant space 45 of each bearing for introduction of the lubricating liquid, normally water, and withdrawal of the same. At the thrust adjusting end, water is introduced through a fitting 68 into a center bore 70 in each adjusting screw 65, thus discharging the water in a center recess 71 against the thrust disc and permitting it to flow radially outwardly between the thrust ring and the thrust disc. In addition at the thrust bearing end each bearing cover 48 is provided with an inlet pipe 72 near the bottom and an outlet pipe 73 near the top.

At the opposite rolling mill hearing from the thrust bearing, water flows through openings 74 (Figure 4) in each bearing cap located at either side of each roll neck and through openings 75 (Figure 3, showing only the upper housing) in each housing on either side of each roll neck. The lowermost openings provide inlet and the uppermost openings provide outlet in each roll.

Thus the water is sealed in the space around each roll i new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

; assembly for the rolls comprising a pair of housings one of which completely surrounds the roll neck and the thrust disc of each roll, a cover closing the end of each housing remote from the roll, a first bearing shoe supported by each housing on the side remote from the opposite roll and engaging the roll neck, a bearing carrier inside each housing on the side adjoining the opposite roll, a second bearing shoe in each bearing carrier engaging the adjoining roll neck on the side of the roll neck adjoining the opposite roll, there being guide openings in each bearing carrier on opposite sides of the roll neck, bolts extending through the bearing carrier guide openings and secured in each housing on the side adjoining the opposite roll, spiral compression springs surrounding the bolts and acting between each bearing carrier and the surrounding housing, a thrust collar on each housing acting against the end of the thrust disc adjoining the roll, a thrust ring in each housing acting on the end of the thrust disc remote from the roll, a screw threaded through the cover of each housing and engaging the thrust ring, means for inserting lubrication through neck and does not flow freely over the external surfaces ing the adjustment nuts to accomplish longitudinal adjustment.

The holddown screws are then tightened to permit firm positioning in theadjusted position.

For replacement of rolls it is merely necessary to remove the mill stand cap and disconnect the pivotal connection 96 between the rods and the upper housing. The

the screw to the interior of the thrust ring, and means for inserting lubrication to the interior of the housing around the bearing shoes.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 276,177 Harty Apr. 24, 1883 451,934 Jardine May 12, 1891 523,296 Townsend July 17, 1894 1,056,203 Neave Mar. 18, 1913 1,065,253 Johnson June 17, 1913 1,532,488 Hein Apr. 7, 1925 1,723,928 Fisher Aug. 6, 1929 1,736,601 Jones Nov. 19, 1929 1,839,497 Peterson Jan. 5, 1932 2,059,167 Bary Oct. 27, 1936 2,167,457 Leufven July 25, 1939 2,367,613 Rich et al. Jan. 16, 1945.

FOREIGN PATENTS 264,105 Great Britain; Jan. 13, 1927 560,273 Great Britain Mar. 28, 1944 

